Hurricane Report

Sunday, 8-31 10 A.M.

Sunday, 8-31 2 P.M.

Sunday, 8-31 8 P.M.

Sunday, 8-31 12 A.M.

Monday 9-1 8 A.M.
Monday, 9-1 2 P.M.Monday, 9-1 8 P.M.

Monday, 9-18 9 P.M.

I declare that this hurricane report cease and desist due to the facts that it appears we are out of mortal danger and the hurricane hit the central Lousiana coastline which was what the National Hurricane Center read in the tea leaves, coffee grinds and split pea soup that spilled on the kitchenette floor 4 days ago.

However the stewards and King of Jefferson County may make a decision in the morning after they sleep on it but at that time citizens will probably be permitted to re-enter the County at their own risk...but we're not sure yet.

Silly becomes Absurd

A San Marcos police officer has been reprimanded for his job performance after he stopped a couple speeding on I-35 on their way to a New Braunsfel hospital to get care for a stricken family member during which the couple say the family member died. The San Marcos police chief said the family member was already dead and that was why the officers didn't show any urgency in the matter and the officers did not cause the family member to die.

After the story was featured on one network morning shows and one celebrity news show petitions were circulated on the Internet getting 300 signatures an hour demanding the San Marcos police officer be fired.

The family member in question was a TOY POODLE.

The couple was driving 95 MILES AN HOUR AT NIGHT!

The way I see it is the two idiot college students in question should be grateful they didn't ACTUALLY KILL A HUMAN BEING OR THEMSELVES WITH THEIR RECKLESS DRIVING.

They are LUCKY THAT OFFICER DIDN'T BRING THEM DIRECTLY TO JAIL.

The Luxury to be Silly

We Americans are wealthy people. Our wealth has bought us the luxury to be silly. We are the silliest people in the world. While nearly 2.6 billion people of the world's population live on 2 dollars or less a day we worry about things like animal cruelty.

Groups such as PETA become a political force that push their extreme views into mainstream America. Laws are being passed across the country on local and state levels strengthening penalties for those who are convicted of animal abuse.

Locally, the city of Beaumont has passed ordinances against tethering dogs in your yard. There are cities in California that tried to pass ordinances requiring all animal owners to spay and neuter and in the case of cats declaw, their pets. Ridiculously, the SETX Humane Society requires that all cats be adopted as an inside pet only.

In the past two months, two cases of animal abuse went through the Jefferson county court systems: the cat beating case and the horse dragging case. In both instances the defendants could have faced jail time. The defendants in both cases plead to lesser charges and were sentenced to probation and community service.

Two trials of Mr. Guillory, accused in the dragging death of his horse Bobby, ended in hung juries.

Some in the community, amplified by the local media, expressed outrage at what they perceived to be light sentences. Some blamed the juries in Mr. Guillory trial of being "provincial" or implied they were a bunch of dumb rednecks. I guess it never really occurred to them that maybe some people with a perfectly sound mind and, pardon me, "horse sense" on the jury were reluctant to send a man to jail for possibly up two years for animal abuse.

Do the people that want tough laws for animal abuse realize that statistically 95 % of animal abusers are male teenagers? This statistic is supported locally when you look back at the animal abuse cases reported over the past 5 years.

Do they want to put teenagers in jail?

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When I was a kid we had cats.

We had lots of cats because we never spayed or neutered any of them. At one time when the female cats all had kittens at the same time we had about 30 cats. They all had names. Not one of them starved. They were all yard cats and they eventually dispersed as animals that occupy a space with too many other animals will do. Some of them we were able to give away. Some of them probably got run over as well. The cats were free to do as they please. They were freer than us. They had access to plenty of food including dinner scraps so that left them with not a care in the world other than to roam, play, hunt and produce other cats. They were happy cats.

Much happier than the cats I see of "responsible" owners who keep them confined to the house, never to go outside.

On an evening bike ride you see them peering out the picture windows of West End homes. These poor animals live a life of boredom and drudgery. The humans that occupy the house with them become the end all and be all of their lives. Their owners buy them stupid toys with feather and fur that the cats may play with for a few minutes before becoming bored with them. Cats like to hunt. Cats like to kill small creatures. Cats like to prowl and mark their territory and look for female cats willing to propagate the species. Tomcats like to howl in the night at other tomcats to show them who is boss. Sometimes they actually fight and occasionally end up with serious injuries. The old toms get abscesses and nicks and tears in their ears. I had one old tom we called "Bruiser" that just about didn't have any ears left. There must have be 20 around the neighborhood that looked like him. We had another tom that did strange things to the kittens that he was probably responsible for. We told our mother and shortly after that the tom disappeared. I now realize why. I guess we were a family of animal abusers.

The Turkey Buzzard and the Golden Eagle

There was a strange hill in the Basin. It did not look like anything else there.

The hill sat at the foot of Casa Grande and was composed of the same type of red rock. But instead of sheer cliff faces it looked as if a giant had gathered odd loose boulders he found around the area and stacked them up in a neat little pile that fit together almost like a puzzle.

In the mornings you could see the turkey buzzards perched on top of it with their wings partially outstretched to dry their feathers before taking off on their daily patrol in the Chisos Mountain sky.

The resident bird expert, Mr Flippo who had been at Big Bend for 20 years, told us during a presentation that sometimes the golden eagle will fly amongst the turkey buzzards as cover when hunting prey.

The day before we were to leave we took it easy, lounged around the campsite, read and talked about our visit to Big Bend and the fact that we didn't want to leave. We noticed at the empty campsite behind us a turkey buzzard sat on the shelter staring out toward the north wall of the Basin. I moved closer to the buzzard and it looked at me but did not move. I decided to get the camera and try to take a picture of it. In the past I had tried to take roadside pictures of turkey buzzards circled around some unfortunate animal, engaged in consuming their gruesome meal and could not even get out of the car before they took off.

I snap a couple of pictures and decide to move in closer. To my surprise, the bird doesn't fly away. We look at each other for a few seconds and I back off and leave the bird to it's lonely campsite.

Later that afternoon, the Suttons, volunteers for Big Bend National Park make their rounds checking campsites. They stop and we talk and learn how it was that they came to be volunteers, that they had been coming out to the park for many years and had recently retired and first worked at the Rio Grande Village this past spring and was in the mountains for the summer and fall. They said they would probably have to go back to work the following year.

As we were talking I noticed a bird circle overhead and at first thought it was just another buzzard, but there was something different about it. Instead of gliding endlessly around the Basin on unseen air currents this bird would circle flap it's wings to attain greater altitude and keep circling up getting higher and higher. It was straight over us. I commented on it and Mr. Sutton said he thought it was probably a golden eagle. Mrs. Sutton agreed and pointed out it's wing span was larger, straighter and it flapped it's wings more than a buzzard.

The eagle climbed higher and higher in the mountain air, it soared higher than I have ever seen a bird fly. It continued it's pattern of flapping it's wings and circling around until it got closer to the clouds above, like it might fly into the clouds. And it did. It disappeared. I wondered if it might fly to the stars.

We were uncertain we'd see the Suttons the next day so we said our goodbyes.

That evening we watched the sun set through the Window.

The drive was hell. Eleven hours on the road to get to nowhere.

We have arrived at Ft. Stockton and realize we still have a two hour drive to reach the park.
We were running out of daylight and we still had to set up camp and get something cooked for dinner.

As we turn south on 385 toward our destination I see storm clouds and rain off in the distance. I think to myself, "What else could go wrong today? Now it looks like we are headed toward a flash flood."

Your mind does funny things when you are tired and hungry, visions of miniature apocalypses begin to manifest: climbing mountains roads in a gale and driving off a cliff, the darkness that was near and the uncertainty that goes with being in an unfamiliar place.

The thunderstorms had passed this part of 385 and every couple of hundred of feet we had to slow down to go through a low spot in the road where the rainwater had pooled. Everything conspired to make this drive drag on .

The landscape had rapidly changed from the mesas topped with high tech windmills on I-10 to something that was looking more mountainous. It was the Chisos Mountains of Big Bend that would end our long day. As we got closer to Marathon I thought I could see them in the distance. Dark thunderclouds and rain hovered over the blue mountains and occasional bolts of lightening would strike unseen targets. I hoped this wasn't where we were going. It was.

I became aware of the scent of sweet flowers.

There was nothing. No cars. No traffic. No homes. No electrical poles. Just the desert and the strange mountains that loomed ahead of us.

We finally get to the sign familiar to me from the park's website but we have over thirty miles to go to get to Panther Junction. When we arrive it is closed and we have not seen another car or person since Ft. Stockton. We begin the climb through the mountains to the Basin. I am blind to the scenery around me until we get to the campgrounds. We make the rounds and finally select some campsites, # 1 and # 3. Both campsites have covered tables and one had partial shade from what we would later learn to be a pinion juniper. We were surprised at the number of others camped here. We had been told this was the slow season.

The rain had subsided into a light mist. I get out of the truck and look around.

It is cloudy, misty but the pictures I had seen from the website and other places on the Internet did not do this place justice. Mountains of pink rock dotted with bright green vegetation surrounded us. Strange plants and flowers surrounded the campsite. Sweet flowers still perfumed the air. I thought I saw a black bear running along the road. I am spellbound by the beauty. It was a fantasy.

We had arrived just in time to set up the tent and unload some things before the night finally fell. I can't get the Coleman stove to light so peanut butter and jelly sandwiches make do.

We go to bed on cots in damp tents, shivering. I can't believe we are finally here.

Later in the night, I am awakened by the noise of animals prowling about the camp. I unzip the tent door and see the sky has cleared. It was a moonless night and you could see the Milky Way.

I am spellbound by the beauty. It was a dream.

Chief Coffin Roars

KFDM had breaking news at 6 pm on the Spa Sex Scandal.

The City of Beaumont released a court document filed by Police Chief Frank Coffin in which he condemns the actions two officers who had repeated sex with Chinese prostitutes as part of an undercover operation into two West End massage parlours.

Chief Coffin condemned the conduct of the two officers Det. Breiner and Lt. Kiker as unprofessional and a discredit to the department.

The documents say there was no logical reason for the officers to engage in repeated sex acts with prostitutes to make a misdemeanor case and that their actions weren't approved by the department.

In remarks addressed to Detective Breiner: "...Beaumont Police Department employees are not supposed to, or expected to, have sex with prostitutes. I have concerns that your conduct may have prejudiced the prosecution of unrelated sex crimes that have been investigated by you. Your moral character, judgment and professionalism have now been brought into question. Your conduct reflects discredit upon the Police Department and brings it into disrepute. It has impaired the Department's operation and resulted in diminished public trust and respect from citizens. Your actions have subjected other members to scorn and ridicule."

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I think it's time for Breiner and Kiker to do the right thing: drop their suits and move on.

Chief Coffin has taken the bull by the horns and it's time for the BPD to get their act together and put this scandal behind them.

This was a good start.

SOUTHEAST TEXAS RECORD CORRECTION AND APOLOGY

The Southeast Texas Record has made a correction and apologized for their error on the West End Spa Sex Stings:

...The petition alleges the officers were repeatedly sent back to conduct sex acts on April 23, April 29 and again on May 7.
According to the petition, detailed affidavits from Breiner and Kiker were presented to a district judge in order to obtain search warrants.
In May, Beaumont police got search warrants for the VIP Massage Parlor and the Sun Spa in west Beaumont.
On May 12, a BPD captain verified from Breiner that sex acts had been committed by him and Kiker in making the criminal case.
The suit states that the captain said she hadn't known about what transpired, and notified Breiner that the chief of police was upset and she might be compelled to file complaints against the both of them, the suit says.
According to the petition, on May 27, Breiner was notified that a complaint had been filed against him with BPD's Internal Affairs Division, alleging he'd acted unprofessionally while trying to make the criminal charges against the prostitutes and the massage parlors.
On May 30, Breiner was denied his request to take a polygraph on the matter, specifically that he had been asked to perform the assignment and that he had been told that any sex acts performed by him as required to make the cases were expected, legal and permitted, the suit says.
A hearing involving both Breiner and the BPD has been slated for Aug. 12.
Case No. B182-127

Correction: A previous version of this story referred to a minor involved in a sexual act. The incident involving the minor that was mentioned in the lawsuit was not related to the sting operation. Breiner was not involved in sexual relations with a minor. We apologize for this error.

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While neither of the Chinese prostitutes that serviced our fine officers of that crackerjack organization known

as the BPD are exactly old enough to collect Social Security, I've seen whores in the North End that had less mileage. I can't see paying $100.00 for sex with these women unless they have been versed in some kind of ancient Chinese techniques that we Americans are ignorant of. Even more so when you can get a blow job from an American whore in the North End, Calder, or the Avenues for a mere $10.00 to $15.00 bucks.

I SAY BUY AMERICAN!

HAVE A NICE WEEK!